Weekend Pick: Brew Skies Festival

August is heating up in the Blue Ridge, which means summer is both peaking and heading toward its eventual end. If you are like us, you are grasping for those last pieces of summer, itching for a few more summer adventures before Labor Day. Even given the time crunch, it can be hard to motivate and rally to the outdoors when the typical hot and muggy atmosphere is a constant drain on your energy supply. Sometimes, all you want to do is sit back, listen to some good ole’ time mountain music, and take quaffs of your favorite craft beer from the brewery right down the road. Well, you may not get to do this every day, but this weekend, you’re in luck because the Brew Skies Festival is happening Friday and Saturday at Canaan Valley State Park in Canaan Valley, West Virginia.

Sponsored and hosted by WV’s own Mountain State Brewing Company, the Brew Skies Festival is in its second year. The festival features both local and national bands playing Friday beginning at 3pm and Saturday at 11am. Bands slated to perform include J. Roddy Walston & the Business, The Pimps of Joytime, Luella and the Sun, Mystery Train, and many more. But this festival is not all about the music, it’s also all about West Virginia Craft Beer with Bridge Brew Works, Morgantown Brewing Company, Blackwater Brewing Company and more in attendance selling suds. The festival also includes a KIDS Area, kids nature hike on Saturday, and a five mile Morning Trail Run. Plus, you are right at the edge of Monongahela National Forest and the mountain biking mecca of Davis, WV, so bring the bike and hiking shoes.

You can purchase a weekend pass or day tickets through the fest’s website, and either camp or stay at one of the numerous inns and B&B’s in the immediate vicinity, which are also listed on the site. Brew Skies are shining again!